The present disclosure relates to a facility and a method for the processing of multi-core cables, in particular a facility and a method including a multiplicity of stations and steps, respectively.
Typically such facilities include a multiplicity of stations, each for at least one step of the process: stripping of the cable, opening up, trimming, and folding back of any screening braid present, removal of any foil present, and removal of any internal filler present. A transport device is preferably available for purposes of transporting cut-to-length cables from and to the stations, and to a processing facility, preferably fully automatic, downstream in the process. Also preferably available is at least one control unit for the facility and/or the individual stations.
After at least one step in the process: (a) stripping of the cable, (b) opening up, (c) trimming and folding back of any screening braid present, (d) removal of any foil present, and (e) removal of any internal filler present; the cables processed are transferred to a downstream process. The transport of cables already cut-to-length in advance, to and between the steps in the process, and for transfer to the downstream process, is integrated into the process sequence.
Here, in particular, HSD (High Speed Data) products place very high requirements on the process. Thus at the present time it is not yet possible to process complete HSD cables fully automatically. Currently the processing steps of cable stripping, cutting the screening braid, and folding it back, removing the foil and filler, are executed manually or semi-automatically on individual stations. Only the further processing then takes place on a fully automatic machine. Thus, the processing step of cutting the screening braid is executed, at best, semi-automatically at the present time.
JP2002-238125A describes a device for shifting a part set on a cable by means of an oblique rail. A cable parts shifter, equipped with a guide rail is adopted, which is arranged oblique with respect to a carrier for carrying the cable in the radial direction and shifts the parts into a required position in the longitudinal direction, in contact with the parts set on the cable. A part detector is arranged on the terminal side of the guide rail. The part detector is equipped with a pair of elastic contacts, with the conductive part placed between contacts with the pair of elastic contacts, forms a closed circuit. The guide rail is installed between a braid cutter and a braid folder for the cable terminal processor, and a shield contactor being a part is shifted along the guide rail to the vicinity of the braid of the cable.
DE3934401A1 discloses a machine for sorting by color the individually insulated conductors of a multicolor cable and placing them in predetermined order in a comb type receptacle. This machine has a travelling head that smoothes and separates the cores after removal of the outer insulation from the cable end. The head distributes the cores across the width of lips and the free ends of the cores are gripped and tensioned by the clamps of a tensioning unit. A color sensor controls the insertion of the cores into the receptacle in the desired order via a punch. This eliminates the possibility of human error and fatigue during the making up of complex cable terminations as used in telecommunications and data networks.
A method for stripping an electrical cable is disclosed in US2006/0218771A1. The method comprises the steps of: positioning the seal on the electrical wire in a position removed a specified distance in an axial direction from a front-end surface of the electrical wire; cutting a cover of the electrical wire by pressing cutting blades against the cover of the electrical wire between the seal and the front-end surface of the electrical wire; removing a cut portion of the cover by moving the cutting blades toward the front-end surface; cutting a core wire of the electrical wire by pressing the cutting blades against the core wire of the electrical wire between the seal and the front-end surface of the electrical wire; and moving the seal in the axial direction toward the front-end surface of the electrical wire to position the seal in the vicinity of a front-end surface of a remainder of the cover.
According to the WO9512806A1 the color or color code of an object can be determined by use for example of a color camera for making a color picture of the object. For a plurality of pixels of the color picture of the object distributed over the surface of the object, the S-, H- and B-values of the color picture are determined and the color is determined by comparison of these S-, H- and B-values with predetermined reference values. The B-value of each pixel is compared with a first reference value determining whether a pixel is black or not, whereafter, if the pixel is not black, the S-value of each pixel is then compared with a second reference value determining whether a pixel is colorless or not, whereafter, if the pixel is not colorless, the color of each pixel is determined by means of the H-value.
The continuous cable processing apparatus for producing cable sections with processed ends according to US2005/0050713A1 comprises a cable transport apparatus having at least one transport means for moving and holding the cable in the axial direction and, transversely thereto, a knife station. According to a special variant, two transport means are arranged in the longitudinal cable direction on both sides of the knife station and, after the cable has been cut through, each hold one of the cable end regions produced on cutting, so that said end regions are movable in the longitudinal cable direction. At least one of these end processing stations is arranged transversely with respect to the longitudinal cable direction, adjacent to the knife station and at least one transport means is movable transversely with respect to the longitudinal cable direction so that a cable end region can be fed to the end processing station.
Lastly, the DE3440711C2 discloses a process for automated production of electric plug assemblies. There, the identity and positioning of the exposed insulated conductors of a length of multi-conductor cable prior to automatically connecting the conductors to the plug pin terminals is effected by directing white light from source on to the exposed insulated conductors; dividing light reflected into three separate branches, e.g., by fibre optic probe. The light from each branch is filtered to provide a different primary color, then the intensities of the filtered primary colors are determined by means of detectors. Each exposed insulated conductor is identified by comparison of the reflected colors of the insulated conductors with each other and with reference values, and automatically the exposed insulated conductors are positioned having regard to the identification e.g. by rotating the cable.